Visiting Museums

     Our last two days in New York turned out to be museum days. Because of the heat we really needed to find indoor activities.

     On Monday, July 2 we headed for the Museum of the City of New York. This is not to be confused with the New York Historical Society Museum and Library which we have toured in the past.The Museum of the City of NY requires a subway ride up Lexington Ave. to 103^rd Street and a walk through a bit of Harlem to the museum on 5^th Avenue. It turned out to be a really interesting museum and one we had not been to before. This is a museum which celebrates and interprets the city. We especially enjoyed the ½ hour movie on the history of New York City from its founding by the Dutch as New Amsterdam to becoming the nation’s largest, most densely populated, most diverse, and most influential city. There was an exhibit on the architecture of Rosario Candela who designed many of the classical apartment buildings which replaced the elegant old mansions on 5^th Avenue and nearby streets. There was also an interesting exhibit on the photographs of Stanley Kubrick when he was a photographer for “Life” magazine before he became a film maker.

    

Don at the Guggenheim

Monday we also visited the Guggenheim Museum which is also on 5 ^th Avenue. They were featuring the sculptures and paintings of Giacometti.

Exhibition of Thomas Bayrle at the New Museum

     Tuesday we headed for the New Museum in The Bowery. It was built in 1977 as an alternative to the Whitney. They both exclusively show case contemporary art. However, the Whitney specializes in American art, while the New Museum specializes in art from all countries. I can’t say we were too impressed by the “art”, but we did enjoy looking around and being someplace cool!

     We finished up the day by wending our way to the China Institute Gallery which is next to the 9/11 Memorial. We had to go through some security to get up to the second floor of the building and look at some beautiful, interesting photographs from various mountain regions in China. I am glad we made the effort to get there.

Cloud shrouded mountain in China 

     And now it is time to get ready to go home tomorrow.